Chapter Text
Bakugou Katsuki had never liked waiting. His whole life was rife with it. It first began when Katsuki was young—waiting for Deku to catch up to him, waiting for Deku to heal, waiting for him to come back to hockey. Always waiting for nothing to happen. Katsuki was tired of waiting, yet here he sat in the locker room after their disastrous game against UA, waiting for his coach to end his speech.
Katsuki rolled his eyes when his coach continued to drone on about how defeat was an important part of learning or some bullshit like that. It had gone on long enough that most of the hockey players were already changed completely in their normal clothes. He felt a hand on his shoulder and snapped his head back to see Kirishima.
"Do you want to die?" Katsuki hissed.
Kirishima put his hands up in a placating gesture and began to whisper. "Sorry man, you just seem on edge. You haven't gotten into a fight in a while… is everything alright?"
"I'm fucking great, Shitty Hair. What do you think?"
"Is that a trick question?"
"Oh, fuck off," Katsuki replied, turning to his attention completely back to his coach. He heard a sigh behind him and felt some twisted sense of satisfaction.
His coach finished speaking, fucking finally, and Katsuki began to stalk out of the room.
"Hey Bakugou, are you coming to the after party tonight? We're gonna drink until we forget about how that game went." Katsuki turned to see Kaminari shooting him a grin.
Kaminari and the rest of their teammates had the tendency to throw a party after every single game, whether they won or lost. Katsuki found it ridiculous. They were athletes and drinking was absolutely awful for their playing and magnified their generalized dumbassery. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that it was completely illegal and dumb as hell. He still showed up most of the time, but he hardly ever drank. He tended to stick around for about thirty minutes and then went back home.
"Not on your life," Katsuki huffed. He left the locker room before he heard Kaminari reply.
He made his way to where he and Deku would meet—that is if the nerd bothered to show up. The place was a part of UA's campus, dubbed Ground Beta. There wasn't too much to it, just a grassy field with some trees. When Katsuki and Deku were younger, they would wait here for one of their parents to come pick them up after practice or a game. Katsuki couldn't help but feel anger boiling in his gut every time he passed Ground Beta, so he tried to avoid it, if he could. He hadn't waited here since Deku left him for Hyogo.
Katsuki tossed his duffel bag to the side and began to flex his fist over and over again. Katsuki wasn't sure exactly why he had asked Deku to meet him here. It would be best if he forgot the insignificant nerd and went on with his life. It had been four years after all, he thought he was over this.
Yet… when Katsuki saw Deku's dumb smile all he could feel was rage. Deku had returned to hockey and had the audacity to play against Katsuki. He knew that Deku was laughing behind his back, playing for Shiketsu and not UA. Deku's injury was never the problem; he quit hockey for four years because he didn't want to be teammates with Katsuki.
It pissed him off exponentially. The shitty nerd thought he was better than him, deeming himself too good to be Katsuki's teammate. Well, Katsuki would prove him wrong. He was going to beat him on the rink every single game UA played with Shiketsu from now on. Katsuki was not on his A game, thanks to Deku's return.
Next time he was going to win, no matter what.
Katsuki's thoughts stalled when he saw Deku walking up to him. He looked stupid, wearing a pair of basketball shorts over sweatpants with a Shiketsu hoodie.
"You look dumb as hell," Katsuki said, crossing his arms.
"What do you want Kacchan? My team is leaving soon."
Katsuki scoffed. "Of course."
"What's your problem?" Deku said defensively.
"What's my problem? Where should I start, Deku? I thought you said you were done with hockey forever."
"People can change their minds, you know."
"Right," Katsuki rolled his eyes. "How did someone as weak as you even get into Shiketsu's team anyway? Last time I checked, you were too useless to do anything."
"Okay, wow. Last time I checked, my team won against yours, so who's useless now?"
Katsuki saw red and he shoved Deku before he could even think. "Fuck you, Deku."
Deku stumbled back a few steps and his eyes shone. "You may call me Deku, but I'm not the same, defenseless kid anymore. You hear me? I've changed." To Katsuki's surprise, Deku rose his fists in front of him and took a fighting stance, shaking slightly. "From now on, we play on even grounds."
"In your dreams. You're shaking in your boots." He matched Deku's fighting stance and began to circle him. "Give this up, you know you won't win."
Deku's fist connected to his face and Katsuki flinched back, holding his cheek. He could taste blood filling up his mouth. "Dammit."
He countered and tried for a right-hook. A grunt and Deku grabbed his arm. With a pivot he swung him down onto the ground. Katsuki felt the thud reverberate throughout him and his breathing became heavier.
"You don't think I know how you fight Kacchan? I've watched you for years."
Katsuki gripped the ground for just a moment and with a guttural scream he got up and tackled Deku. He punched at Deku's nose, hearing a sickening crack.
He paused and rolled off, his face turned away from Deku. He looked at his knuckles and saw the bright red shine of Deku's blood all over them. He looked in horror as he saw blood flowing freely from Deku's nose.
What had he done?
Four years ago
Bakugou Katsuki was on top of the world. Their team was winning by 4:1, with Katsuki scoring two of their goals. He grinned manically as he skated around one of the opposing players, the puck was in his possession and absolutely nothing was going to stop him from scoring another goal.
He was going to win.
An extra skated right in his way and Katsuki shoulder-checked him, not looking back at all. His only thought was victory. He lined up his shot and hit the puck, scoring another goal. He cheered in excitement and turned, expecting Izuku and his other teammates to be there cheering with him.
Instead, what he saw was Izuku skating back towards the extra that Katsuki had knocked down earlier.
Katsuki frowned when he saw Izuku hold out his hand to the opposing team member. Why wasn't he looking at him?
Katsuki's eyes widened as he saw one of the inexperienced players stumble towards their fallen teammate, tripping into Izuku.
Time seemed to slow down as Katsuki watched Izuku fall down on his wrist. A sickening crack and a pop reverberated through the arena. Izuku screamed an awful sort of sound, and Katsuki shut his eyes tightly, as if that would drown out the sound.
He opened his eyes and immediately regretted it as he saw the bright red shine of blood pooling on the ground from Izuku's forearm. He must have cut his arm on the other player's skate as he fell.
There was so much blood. It looked too bright against the ice.
Katsuki watched in shock, standing there, unable to move his body. He dimly heard his coach come up to him. "Come on, Bakugou. We need to leave room for the medical professionals."
Katsuki blinked and let his coach lead him off court, proceeding not to say anything. His coach sighed. "Izuku is going to be alright, okay kid?"
Katsuki nodded and clenched his fist.
What had he done?
Now
All Katsuki could see was the bright blood on his knuckles. He had not realized that his breath was coming out in uneven gasps, as he stumbled away from Deku.
There was blood everywhere Katsuki looked. It began to swell on his hands and run off, dripping into the ground. Katsuki couldn't tear his gaze away from his hands as they shook slightly.
"Kacchan?" He heard a questioning voice. He didn't answer, just looked at his hands.
He saw scarred hands cover his own and his eyes shot up to Deku's bloody face. Green eyes met his. Deku's face was no longer held his anger from a few moments ago, the only emotion Katsuki could see was pity. "Are you okay?"
He would laugh if he could. Of course the stupid bastard would be judging him.
"Get off of me Deku. I don't need you." Katsuki took away his hands away from Deku as if they were on fire.
"You looked like you were asking for help," Deku said.
Katsuki let out a dry snort. "Of course you thought that, Deku. You always need to save everyone, don't you? Don't you get that is why I hate you? You and your damn hero complex."
Katsuki turned away and began to walk off. He paused and turned back to Deku before sneering. "Aren't your teammates waiting for you? Clean yourself off first, you look like shit."
He stalked off before Deku could reply, leaving him with his broken nose and bloodied face.